Substitute
by Moonsetta
Summary: Set in season 3, the Metarex. No Chris! When the team faces a small group of Metarex ships and Sonic's unconscious, someone else has to take his place in the Power Cannon if they hope to break their enemies' defenses. What consequences follow? Four-Shot
1. Decision Bittersweet

Hello fans of Sonic the Hedgehog!

*Crickets chirp.*

Anyways, I'm just a random author browsing fandoms at the moment. I was going through one of my old writing notebooks when I found this old story and I thought, why not post it? I ain't got much else to do. Knuckles is indeed my favorite character and well, there's not much else to say.

I don't own any characters mentioned in this story.

Oh, and there's no Chris in this, I don't like the guy. Couldn't they just make a show about the normal characters without centering it around a human? Sorry, but it sounds like an act of your typical fan fiction author.

Here we go!

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><p>Substitute<p>

Chapter 1-Decision Bittersweet

The hallway was semi-lit by heat generating lights as the red echidna made his way down it, his violet eyes hiding, something. Just something.

An automatic sliding door in front of him opened, he stepped through and kept walking towards the star studded space sky in front of him as he spoke, "I've drawn all the power from the Master Emerald that I can."

He reached the far glass window as he finished his sentence and a voice behind him spoke up distractedly, "Thanks Knuckles."

Knuckles turned slightly, one eye watching the twin tailed fox that sat at the helm as he typed fiercely, his eyes darting back and forth to the screens surrounding him.

"Tails?" a soft but high voice asked on the fox's right.

The fox paused and glanced to his right where a young rabbit was standing, her wide, amber eyes completely drowned in worry and a bit of fear.

"Cream, why don't you go help Amy?" Tails suggested, his own blue eyes strayed away from their determined look to one of worry similar to the rabbit's.

Where was that pink hedgehog? She could calm Cream down.

Cream shook her head, her eyes narrowing even though tears were building behind her eyes, "Amy has to help Sonic. I want to help here."

Tails frowned, bit his tongue and nodded, motioning to the seat behind the rabbit, telling her to maintain a vigil on the ship's condition.

"Tails?" another female's voice spoke from his left.

Tails turned and met the worried blue eyes of his newest friend, "What is it Cosmo?"

The blue eyes danced back to the screen in front of the girl before the entire plant girl turned to stare at the captain, "They've rerouted most of their power to their shields."

Tails gritted his teeth and slammed a fisted hand down onto the control panel that he was typing on, "That means that the cannon alone can't get past their defenses."

"A wonderful day to get caught by a fleet of Metarex," Knuckles said, turning around to lean his back against the window and stare at the three before him.

The fox gulped and brought up a link to the medical lab. A female pink hedgehog stared back at the open screen.

"Any luck Amy?" the captain asked.

Amy's green eyes were wide and sad, "Sonic hasn't woken up. He won't for another few hours."

"Keep trying Amy."

The pink hedgehog nodded the screen went blank.

Knuckles scoffed and turned his head to look back out across space at the specks in the distance that would reach them in a matter of minutes.

And destroy them too.

Yeah, there was that.

Well, if the idiotic blue hedgehog hadn't super sped himself through a belt of asteroids earlier he wouldn't be unconscious. You know?

"What do we do Tails?" Cream asked, as a blue creature floated up beside her shouting a single word over and over.

In response the fox groaned and buried his face into his hands and the rabbit turned to embrace the small blue chao, "It's OK Cheese. We'll be OK."

Cream smiled as the blue creature buried its head into the rabbit's shoulder and then looked at the others as if to ask, 'Right?'

"We can't let them get much closer or we'll be in range," Cosmo reminded the others.

"But the cannon's not powerful enough to break their shield," Tails protested, "We need Sonic."

"Isn't there anything we can do?" Cream asked as Cheese began crying against her shoulder.

"Could someone take Sonic's place in the cannon?" Cosmo asked, truly wondering, surely one of them could-

Tails' eyes widened before drooping, "Cosmo, there's no way anyone on this ship could withstand the speed that the cannon shoots them at. Not you, me, Cream, Amy or even-"

"I'll go," the red echidna said, stepping towards them.

"What? But Knuckles you can't!" the fox protested.

"And why not?" Knuckles said in response, "I can keep up with Sonic's speed. I fight him all the time, plus I'm a chaos controller too. If I can transfer all the energy from the Master Emerald to this ship's engine, then why not the cannon?"

The young fox bit his lip as his eyes darted from his friend in front of him and out to the distance where the Metarex ships were heading towards them. He ignored the protest coming from Cream and Cosmo's inquiries.

"Go," he muttered under his breath.

He didn't see or hear the echidna leave.

If Knuckles didn't survive this, it would be all his fault. How would he tell Sonic? He gulped and shook his head, he'd just have to trust his judgment.

Still ignoring the questions and protests from the girls, Tails readied the cannon. They had this one chance. If they did manage to pull out of this battle alive, their only hope was that no other Metarex attacked them.

His finger hovered over the button.

"They're getting ready to fire!" Cosmo yelled as a warning.

Blue eyes narrowed and Tails pushed the red button.

No.

He might have just pulled the trigger.


	2. Recovery

Chapter 2-Recovery

Violet eyes scanned the dark hallways, no longer dim but dark. Given that he spent a lot of time digging underground, the echidna did not find himself compromised in the dark, although he occasionally stuck out a hand to slide along the metal walls. So much metal, so cold. Where was the dirt, the grass, the sun? He missed Angel Island. Not that he was going to complain out loud or anything. Internally, sure. Had he wanted to go on a big space adventure? No. That went without saying, but what would he have done anyways?

His usual. Guard the Master Emerald, watch the animals play on the island, listen to the birds, eat the wild grapes that grew throughout the place that he called home and just, relax. Imagine that times were like they had been before he met the impulsive speed-a-holic hedgehog and too-smart-for-his-own-good twin-tailed fox.

Those were the good old days.

Old.

Knuckles pulled himself out of his thoughts when he heard foot steps approaching him. He stopped and listened as they got closer. He removed his hand from the wall when he noticed a light in the distance and crossed both of his arms over his chest. The light turned towards him and a familiar voice rang out.

"Knuckles? What are you doing up?"

The light dimmed to stop from blinding the echidna and revealed the fox captain of the ship, rubbing at his drooping blue eyes.

"I should ask you the same."

"I was just running some tests on the X-Tornado. And you?"

"Just walking."

"OK then," Tails said and walked past the red echidna.

Normally, he would've questioned Knuckles leaving the Master Emerald at this time of night. Well, what they deemed night in space.

Knuckles grunted as he heard the door to Tails' room open just a few feet from where he was standing.

"Oh and Knuckles?"

"What?" he spat without turning around to look at the young fox.

"Thanks again. You saved us all today."

"Go to bed before you fall flat on your face."

Tails smiled, "See you at breakfast tomorrow."

"Whatever."

Tails' door closed and Knuckles breathed a sigh of relief. Now, back to his 'walk.'

It hadn't taken but two minutes for him to reach his destination:

The Medical Lab.

The echidna slid the door aside and stepped inside quietly. It wouldn't have mattered though. The idiotic blue hedgehog was still out. He could've slept through a train. Stupid hedgehog.

Knuckles walked the entire expanse of the room and found that Sonic was in the furthest corner, laying quietly as ever on one of the medical lab's limited supply of beds. It hadn't been too long ago that both the hedgehog and echidna had been on one. If the hedgehog hadn't lost the Chaos Emeralds for the like-23rd time, then they wouldn't have needed the Master Emerald or the echidna to activate it.

Knuckles growled under his breath.

What was he to them anyways?

On this mission, apparently a battery.

The red echidna sighed deeply and clenched and unclenched his fists multiple times, a green glow escaping from a broken shard of the Master Emerald that was wrapped up tightly in his right hand. He gritted his teeth and leaned against the nearby wall, meditating for a short few minutes.

What was he doing here anyways? He couldn't yell at the idiot, he wasn't even conscious yet. If he punched him, he wouldn't fight back either. So what was he doing here again? He let himself see the shard in his hand without opening his eyes and just tried to focus on its internal power. He kept leaning against the wall and thought about the Master Emerald and his ally who was currently unconscious. Why had he stayed in contact with this idiot again?

The shard in his hand began to glow intently and Knuckles opened his eyes to glare down at it. He knew why, but he wasn't about to admit anything that slanted his view of the world. Heck, _he _was still trying to figure out the surface dwellers. Dumb smart fox and that dang flying machine!

He huffed, enclosed the shard in his fist, crossed his arms over his chest again, stared over at the unconscious hedgehog and then left thinking as he made his way back to the power core.

"Better to be allied with the universe's other chaos controller than to be against him."


	3. Sweet Treat

Chapter 3-Sweet Treat

The call went up the next morning the that annoyance was wide awake and had already done a good thirty laps across the medical bay floor, up the walls and over the ceiling.

Knuckles really didn't care. He went to the kitchen and ate some breakfast while the others clamored around the speedy mammal in the medical lab. He stopped by on his way back and glanced in. Sonic was eating while smiling that annoying smile of his. Good. He'd get better soon.

Wait. Why did he care? Oh yeah, if the Metarex attacked again he wanted to avoid drawing that much power from the Master Emerald. It had, just that morning, regained enough power to run a few basic systems on the ship. He wouldn't risk it shattering again.

Settling down beside the master Emerald, Knuckles slipped into a light meditation.

Inside the medical lab, Sonic was attempting to eat a breakfast of steaming chilidogs but was also trying to accomplish the multi-tasking event of escaping one of Amy Rose's love-hugs.

It was only when Sonic had managed to swallow the large amount of breakfast and Cream announced that she'd make cookies that Cosmo said the obvious.

"Knuckles isn't here."

Sonic rolled his eyes to the ceiling, "Knucklehead."

"Well, he did take your place in the Sonic Power Cannon for our Metarex fight," Cosmo said, obviously to the throat cutting signal she was getting from the others.

Needless to say, they had some explaining to do, given that Sonic hadn't even been aware that they had run into Metarex ships while he had been out. So while Tails and Amy mumbled out the story, Cosmo escaped to the kitchen to help Cream with the cookies.

Free of explaining anything to the second oldest on the ship, the girls made their way to the back of the ship.

"I hope Knuckles likes these," Cosmo said, her shy, yet ever present smile on her face.

"Me too, then we'll give the others the next batch. They'll make everyone happy."

When they reached the power core, they found the red echidna sitting beside the emerald, a closed eyes look of concentration on his face.

"Knuckles. Are you hungry?" Cosmo asked, assuming that their friend was calmed down enough to eat such a sweet treat.

"I ain't hungry."

Cosmo gasped before her blue eyes narrowed. Here they were giving cookies to him and all he does is-

"OK then Knuckles," Cream said, jumping up and allowing her ears to flap so she could fly up next to him, a cloth covered tray of cookies in her hands, "I'll just leave these here. In case you get hungry later."

"But Cream," Cosmo protested before the flying rabbit pulled her out of the room saying that that was just how Knuckles was and that he was actually very grateful for their kind act.

He just wouldn't say it out loud.

When the room was silent, Knuckles looked towards the covered plate and pulled the cloth away, picked up a cookie and ate it quickly.

Man the rabbit could bake! Cream's cooking creations were delicious, like always. Knuckles put the cloth back. He had just eaten breakfast anyways and truthfully, he didn't want anymore. Actually, he hadn't wanted the one he had eaten. You know, until he had actually eaten it.


	4. Just One

Chapter 4-Just One

Cream found herself back at the power core that night. Knuckles was gone and she found the plate of cookies that she had made still sitting on the ground, the cloth still over the plate. Knuckles hadn't touched them…

She sighed and scooped up the plate before deciding that she could use one herself. Today had been tiring with all the repairs that they had had to do. When she lifted the cloth though, she gasped and smiled. Two cookies were gone.

Now THAT was an improvement. She had to tell Amy. If her pink hedgehog friend wasn't already asleep.

Where had that second cookie gone? Well…

Knuckles found himself, at that same time, in the Medical Lab again. This time Sonic was sleeping instead of unconscious.

Why was here again? The glow from the Master Emerald rooms away poked at his mind and he growled silently. Fine!

It was 2:00am but everyone's internal clock had been knocked off of schedule for the past couple of days.

The sleeping blue hedgehog shifted in his sleep, muttered something about a ugly, torturous green sweater and then fell back into a deep slumber. The red echidna walked over to the side of the bed and noted the empty tray on the bedside table that had, some hours ago, held the hedgehog's dinner.

A crummy thing was placed onto the tray and Knuckles made a silent and slow escape.

In the movie-stream way, the door was only an inch open when-

"Thanks Knux."

Knuckles scowled, "Go to sleep idiot."

Footsteps. Fast footsteps.

"You voluntarily got shot out of a cannon and you call me the idiot, Knucklehead?"

"Yeah, now go to sleep before I knock you out."

Sonic smiled slowly, "Sure, right after-"

Curse that supersonic speed! The hug was barely even felt before the blue hedgehog was back in his bed, sound asleep, as if he had never moved. Knuckles growled lowly and made his escape into the hallway, the door slamming behind him. He instantly regretted it though. He hoped it hadn't woken anyone up. He had paid his due, he had gone to see Sonic like everyone else. Didn't mean that he had to visit while everyone else did.

Stupid touchy feely hedgehog! And what was with the nicknames all these years? They were NOT friends!

Footsteps.

The red echidna glanced down the hallway sharply and quickly, finding that the familiar figure of Tails was making his way towards him, though the fox's eyes were strained, fully directed at some kind of device in his hand.

"Stupid mammals," Knuckles muttered and quickly made his way back to the Master Emerald.

He didn't have friends, but he assumed that these were good allies.

The End.

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><p>Yeah, just a short little story I wrote in four parts some time ago. Maybe I'll expand on it in the future.<p>

~Moonsetta


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